Manus issue still unresolved

I WOULD like to add my support to the concern raised by Manus lawyer Ben Lomai on the ongoing problem of the asylum seekers centre in Manus.
Both the PNG and Australian governments are wasting time in closing down the detention centre.
The Supreme Court on April 26 last year declared the existence of the centre as unconstitutional but the two governments are behaving as if the court decision is invalid.
For anyone who is not aware of how this situation came about, it is time are aware that asylum seekers are in fact ‘boat people’ fleeing their homes and countries because they were persecuted or faced with persecution.
They never intended to come to PNG or Nauru or any Pacific island country in the first place. Most asylum seekers are from Asia, the Middle East or elsewhere in the world, who were set on getting to Australia to settle there.
When the ‘boat people’ first headed for Australia, they were detained and kept on Christmas Island for processing. After a while, Australia decided to close down the Christmas Island centre and set up on Nauru.
And of course Nauru had no choice because it needed the Aussie dollars  but then Australia decided that it’s ‘backyard PNG’ was also the closest to off-load its burden as well.
In this whole deal, the fact is PNG did not approach Australia and request to host the asylum seekers centre. It was Australia who used its diplomatic clout, plus the weight of its aid donor dollars, to force PNG into agreeing to the deal. The language used by Australia in this deal is that PNG is a Christian country, a signatory to the UN declaration on rights of refugees and therefore it must bear some responsibility in looking after asylum seekers, refugees and other responsibilities according to the agreement.
Australia had waved millions of Aussie dollars in front of the PNG government’s nose and why would greedy politicians say no to the tantalising bait?
Well, with the PNG national elections not far off, our government took the bait, disregarding any high level thinking.
The National Congress party had to ensure that it stayed in government and to do that needed money to keep the government coalition together to implement its programmes and projects to impress the people.
Then sometime last year when our Prime Minister faced the Aussie press club he was asked whether it was ok to keep the centre operating in PNG (Manus Island).
(He replied jokingly, ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours”).
It simply means that, ‘look; I am going to face national election soon. If you want the deal to continue in my country, you help me stay in government otherwise…’
Well I agree with Lomai that asylum seekers should be relocated and the Manus centre closed down immediately.

Resident
Lae